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Iranian writers welcome decline of censorship

After eight difficult years of strict censorship under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian writers say that literary freedom is increasing under the new administration.
EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on leaving the office to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

A customer holds a copy of the translated novel "Eleven Minutes" written by the Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho at a bookshop in central Tehran January 29, 2011. Iranians are feeling the pinch from radical cuts in state subsidies, a plan President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called "the biggest economic plan in the past 50 years". The cuts in long-standing subsidi

When Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faced off with his primary opponent, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, in a heated televised debate in 2008, the unyielding leader conceded at least one point. When Mousavi criticized the state for its arbitrary book censorship under Ahmadinejad, the president responded, “Yes, I agree with you on that. I have written to the culture minister and warned him about this.”

Simply put, the eight years of Ahmadinejad's presidency were some of the toughest for Iran’s publishing community. Facing a massive increase in censorship and harassment, many writers simply gave up trying. In 2013, President Hassan Rouhani came to power, promising to inject new life into the country’s cultural scene. He seems to have made good on at least one of his promises, and many writers and publishers have told Al-Monitor that book censorship has eased considerably.

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